CDC: Get Tested for HIV Today

Today is National HIV Testing Day, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says focuses on the importance of knowing one's current human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection status.

According to the CDC, in 2003, approximately 25 percent of the estimated 1 million persons in the United States infected with HIV were unaware of their infection. CDC is encouraging the public to learn one's HIV status through HIV testing and has recommended that voluntary HIV testing be offered routinely in health-care settings to all persons aged 13-64 years.

Persons at higher risk for HIV should get tested more frequently. To address the disproportionately high rate of HIV infection among blacks, CDC has increased HIV testing opportunities in 23 geographic areas with the largest number of HIV cases, so that more blacks can know their HIV status.

Persons who learn that they are infected with HIV at an earlier stage of infection can survive longer by receiving appropriate care and can prevent transmitting HIV to others. Additional information, including a list of testing sites, is available at www.hivtest.org.